Use Case: Azure Backup in Azure Government

Pishoy Bous, Azure Technical Specialist

Azure Government enables customers to utilize Azure Backup capabilities to target multiple Azure Government regions, leveraging the logical and physical controls of those regions. By utilizing Azure Backup, customers can use Azure as an alternative to long-term tape-based deployments with either System Center Data Protection Manager (DPM) or directly from the operating system. Using an offsite backup service that is integrated with a FedRAMP High environment, and allows for replication to multiple geographically dispersed regions provides a significant opportunity for cost savings, while enhancing Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery (BCDR) and COOP requirements.  Azure Backup is one of the unique hybrid services provided by Azure Government, as part of the suite of over 25 different Infrastructure and platform capabilities. Azure capabilities are designed to work in conjunction with a customer’s on-premises solution and aren’t limited to just backup, for example, as other services in this category include Azure Site Recovery enabling VM failover to the Azure cloud.

Recently, one of my customers enlisted my help to meet a disaster recovery mandate to store their data off premises. Azure Backup in Azure Government enabled them to meet this mandate and avoid the costs associated with setting up another datacenter and acquiring, and managing the hardware required to store data offsite. This solution offered them a quick alternative with the added benefit of being a pay per use system.  Azure Backup pricing charges a set fee per protected instance and then the storage costs associated with the storage vault are only incurred based on the amount of data being stored.  There is no need to procure capacity in advance of future storage needs, as Azure will scale to meet your requirements when you need it. 

In this case, the customer is already using System Center Data Protection Manager within their datacenter environment, making the backup process even easier. Following the steps located here they were able to connect DPM to Azure Government in a short amount of time and meet their aggressive timelines. This led to a successful registration to the Azure Government Virginia region as shown below.

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Note: System Center Data Protection Manager Update Rollup 6 or greater is required.

By delivering this solution within Azure Government my customer was able to leverage a FedRAMP High compliant cloud environment to deliver value added services such as Azure Backup to their entire organization without additional complexity. Azure Backup provided the customer a compelling alternative to tape with significant cost savings, shorter recovery times, and up to 99 years of retention.  Additionally, after understanding the ease and benefits of the Azure Government solution, my customer began evaluating options to re-provision on premises storage devices and enhance their disaster recovery posture in other areas. It is exciting to see the services delivered through Azure Government having this kind of impact in meeting Federal mandates as well as mission and budgetary needs.  I’d encourage you to look at how Microsoft Azure Government’s hybrid integration services can improve your agency’s ability to leverage the cloud in a secure and cost efficient manner.

Azure Government was designed to meet US Government Demands including:

  • Physical and logical network-isolated instance of Azure
  • Dedicated to US government with all data, applications, and hardware residing in the continental United States
  • Broad range of compliance certifications critical to US government
  • US datacenters located more than 500 miles apart, providing true geographic redundancy
  • Support for hybrid scenarios, as well as a vast array of services, programming languages, and tools
  • Part of the complete Microsoft Cloud for Government solution
  • Learn more about Azure Government at https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/features/gov/

We welcome your comments and suggestions to help us improve your Azure Government experience. To stay up to date on all things Azure Government, be sure to subscribe to our RSS feed and to receive emails by clicking “Subscribe by Email!” on the Azure Government Blog. To experience the power of Azure Government for your organization, sign up for an Azure Government Trial.

 

 

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